News Briefs

Shrines are places of God’s mercy, Pope Francis says

November 29, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, Nov 29, 2018 / 09:55 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Shrines and sanctuaries should be places of welcoming and mercy where the sacraments can be received, Pope Francis said Thursday to an international gathering of shrine rectors and pastoral workers.

“The shrine,” the pope said Nov. 29 in the Vatican’s Sala Regia, “is a privileged place to experience mercy that knows no boundaries.”

“In fact, when mercy is lived, it becomes a form of real evangelization, because it transforms those who receive mercy into witnesses of mercy,” he said.

Pope Francis also told the group he hopes each shrine has the presence of one or more “missionaries of mercy” to help with this evangelical work, and if they do not, to ask the Pontifical Council for the Promoting the New Evangelization to help.

Missionaries of mercy are the approximately 1,000 priests from around the world Francis authorized during and after the 2016 Jubilee Year of Mercy to spread the message of God’s mercy and forgiveness, particularly through the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Pope Francis spoke to priests and lay people participating in an international convention on the daily work and operation of shrines. Held Nov. 27-29 at the Vatican, it brought together 586 participants from five continents. The group plans to hold similar conventions once every three years.

The theme of the gathering was “The shrine: an open door to the new evangelization”; it took place following Pope Francis’ February 2017 decision to move the competency for shrines and sanctuaries under the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.

Speaking to participants, Francis said shrines are irreplaceable because through catechesis and the “testimony of charity” they help sustain popular piety.

He noted two important aspects of a Catholic shrine: prayer and hospitality. He said hospitality is important because when pilgrims come to a shrine, often after having made a long journey, “it is sad when it happens that, on their arrival, there is no one to give them a word of welcome.”

He also warned against paying more attention to the material needs of the shrine than to visitors. Pilgrims, he said, should be made to feel “‘at home,’ like a long-awaited family member who has finally arrived.”

Keep in mind, he said, that some people visit religious shrines for reasons beside piety or devotion. For example, because of local tradition, the art present, or the beautiful natural setting.

When people are welcomed, their hearts become more open to being “shaped by grace,” he stated. “A climate of friendship is a fertile seed that our Shrines can throw into the soil of the pilgrims, allowing them to rediscover that trust in the Church.”

Above all, a shrine is a place of prayer, he emphasized, adding that with many of the world’s shrines being devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, there she “opens the arms of her maternal love to listen to everyone’s prayer and to fulfill it.”

He urged sanctuaries to celebrate the sacraments frequently, since they are the universal prayers of the Church and to “nourish the prayer of the individual pilgrim in the silence of his heart,” since many people visit a shrine wishing to receive a specific grace or the answer to a particular prayer.

“With the words of the heart, with silence, with his formulas learned by heart as a child, with his gestures of piety…everyone must be able to be helped to express his personal prayer,” he said.

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CAR bishops establish day of prayer for victims of violence

November 28, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Bangui, Central African Republic, Nov 29, 2018 / 12:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The bishops of the Central African Republic have set aside a day of mourning and a day of prayer for victims of ongoing violence in the country.

December 1 will be a day of mourning. The date is significant, as it marks the anniversary of the Central African Republic’s establishment as a republic after French colonial rule.

In a communique, the bishops urged “men and women of good will to refrain from celebrating 1 December as a sign of mourning,” according to Vatican News.

On the following day, the first Sunday of Advent, prayers will be held in memory of the victims of violence in the country. The bishops said all donations collected on this Sunday will be given to support victims and their families.

The prayer and mourning initiative was announced at a Nov. 26 press conference in Bangui.

Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, the archbishop of Bangui and president of the CAR bishops’ conference, said the appeal is a response to ongoing violence and an attempt to raise awareness about the situation in the country.

“Following the unfortunate and repetitive events that have plunged Central African families into mourning since 2012, the most recent of which are those of Bangui, Bambari, Batangafo and Alindao, the Central African Bishops’ Conference is holding its extraordinary session on 24 November 2018 and hereby issues this communiqué,” he said, according to Vatican News.

The Central African Republic has suffered violence since December 2012, when several bands of mainly Muslim rebel groups formed an alliance, taking the name Seleka, and seized power.

In reaction to the Seleka’s attacks, some Central Africans formed self-defense groups called anti-balaka. Some of these groups, mainly composed of Christians, began attacking Muslims out of revenge, and the conflict took on a sectarian character.

According to Reuters, the violence has displaced more than 1 million people and brought the country’s food security to a level four in the international food security classification system, one step away from “famine.” The U.N. humanitarian chief for CAR, Najat Rochdi, said nearly 3 million of the country’s 4.6 million population are in need of aid. More than half of them are in desperate need.

“If the situation is remaining the same and people are not going back to work their fields… it means that, yes, in a very few years we will have a famine in Central African Republic,” Rochidi said.

Recent acts of violence include the torching of several Christian internal displacement camps. At least 42 people – many of whom were refugees – died in a Nov.15 attack Thursday on the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Alindao.

At the press conference on Monday, Nzapalainga pointed to the Constitution of the Central African Republic, which states, “The human person is sacred and inviolable. All public officials, all organizations, have an absolute obligation to respect and protect it.”

 

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US Congress passes bill to relieve Christians, Yazidis in Iraq and Syria

November 28, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Washington D.C., Nov 28, 2018 / 05:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The US House of Representatives passed Tuesday H.R. 390, a bill titled “Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act,” which seeks to assist with the rebuilding of the Christian and Yazidi communities in Iraq and Syria.

Having also passed the Senate, the bill now will go to President Donald Trump, who has indicated he is willing to sign it.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and was cosponsored by a bipartisan group of 47 members of Congress. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) was the lead Democratic co-sponsor of the bill. The bill was passed unanimously in the House Nov. 27.

H.R. 390 would provide funding to entities, including those who are faith-based, that are assisting with the humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery efforts in Iraq and Syria to religious and ethnic minorities in the area.

It would also direct the Trump administration to “assess and address the humanitarian vulnerabilities, needs, and triggers that might force these survivors to flee” the area, as well as identify potential warning signs of violence against religious or ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria.

Additionally, the bill will support entities that are conducting criminal investigations into members of the Islamic State who committed “crimes against humanity and war crimes in Iraq,” and will encourage foreign governments to identify suspected Islamic State perpetrators in security databases and security screenings to assist with their capture and prosecution.

The Senate unanimously passed a slightly amended version of the bill Oct. 11.

“The fact that this bill passed both the House and the Senate unanimously shows that the American response to genocide transcends partisanship and that there is enormous political will to protect and preserve religious minorities in the Middle East, including Christians and Yazidis, who were targeted for extinction,” said Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl Anderson upon the bill’s passage. Anderson testified at a congressional hearing about the bill.

“We thank Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ), the bill’s author, and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), its lead cosponsor, for their leadership in partnership with Knights of Columbus on this important bill,” he said.

Smith noted that “over-stretched groups on the ground” have been “fill[ing] the gap” in providing aid to survivors of Islamic State. He said that so far, Aid to the Church in Need has contributed more than $60 million, and the Knights of Columbus more than $20 million, to the region’s response.

The bill took 17 months to pass, Smith told CNA, and was introduced three separate years. Smith was able to visit Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, and he said he found the work the archbishop was doing there to be inspiring. The congressman said that it was important to include faith-based entities among those receiving funding under the bill.

Since Islamic State came to power in the region, the Christian and Yazidi populations have been decimated, Warda explained to CNA. And even though Islamic State is no longer in power and the area has been liberated, the region’s Christians are still struggling due to the conflict.

Many people have not been able to rebuild their homes, and a lack of job prospects cause
people to leave even though the situation is largely safe, said Warda. In order to provide long-term security for the region’s Christians, he said that there needs to be an emphasis on economic opportunities for young people.

“I’m a shepherd there. I have to really speak to my people there and tell them that it’s safe. It’s safe to be and to prosper at the same time,” he said. “So, providing jobs. Helping and really realizing some of the economical projects for the young people, to help them stay and prosper in the area.”

Many of the area’s Christians fled to Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. While Warda said that he would love to work on luring them back to Iraq, he conceded that this task is “really difficult.”

Another effort to ensure long-term safety for religious minorities will require a cultural shift, Warda explained. The deaths or displacement of Christians and Yazidis are considered “collateral damage” by the government, said Warda. This mentality resulted in “the majority of the persecution” faced by those groups.

He laid blame on the public school curriculum used in Iraq, which provides no information at all about religious minority groups in the country.

“There’s nothing about Christians,” he explained, noting that non-Muslims are described as infidels, and conspiracy theories about these groups abound.

Warda was particularly pleased with the inclusion of support for the criminal prosecution of Islamic State members who committed genocide. This, he said, will ensure that “history will not be written by people like ISIS. For the first time, the victims of this genocide will be able to tell their story and to provide history from their side.”

The ability for these groups to have their stories heard will be a way to ensure that this genocide and displacement does not happen again.

“Unless you tell Muslims that there’s something wrong in the way that you teach Islam, the history will repeat itself,” the bishop explained. Even though Islamic State was defeated, “the ideology is still there.”

“Writing the history from the side of the victims; it would help the other (side) to realize ‘okay, never again,” he said.

“Hopefully.”

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Tijuana archbishop urges solidarity with Central American migrants

November 28, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Tijuana, Mexico, Nov 28, 2018 / 03:01 pm (ACI Prensa).- Archbishop Francisco Moreno Barrón of Tijuana encouraged the faithful Sunday to share “from our poverty” with the Central American migrants arriving in the city.

In his Nov. 25 homily, Archbishop Moreno encouraged sharing “not out of what we have left over but from our poverty. Let us continue to show that solidarity of our peoples.”

Thousands of Central American migrants have reached Tijuana in their attempt to cross the border to the United States. The first migrant caravan, which left Honduras Oct. 13, numbers more than 5,600 people.

Archbishop Moreno said the large number of migrants “took us by surprise” since “we don’t have the conditions to receive them as we have done on other occasions.”

The Archbishop of Tijuana asked Mexican federal authorities to allocate resources to the area “so that we can attend to this extraordinary human emergency,” as well as “international aid, particularly from those humanitarian agencies who always are on scene in these particularly difficult moments.”

The prelate asked the United States to “take the initiative to invest” in Central American countries “so that in the future these disorganized human exoduses that cause so much suffering will not continue.”

Meanwhile, he said, “we as people of faith, only want to recognize the face of Jesus, a migrant face, and give these brothers an response of love.”

“We have a migrant face, we are a migrant Church, a border, a migrant Tijuana and that is why we are more sensitive to giving a hand to these brothers,” he said.

 

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Venezuelan archbishop condemns sex abuse committed by religious priest

November 28, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Maracaibo, Venezuela, Nov 28, 2018 / 02:07 pm (ACI Prensa).- Archbishop José Luis Azuaje Ayala of Maracaibo on Wednesday condemned the abuse of a female minor by Fr. Iván Marino Padial, for which the priest has been arrested.

According to local media the priest, a member of the Order of Augustinian Recollects and parochial vicar of Most Holy Trinity parish, was arrested Nov. 24 having been caught in the act in his car with a 12-year-old girl.

The case is in the hands of prosecutor’s department for the protection of children.

Archbishop Azuaje and his auxiliary bishop, Ángel Francisco Caraballo Fermin, asked “forgiveness of the minor girl, her relatives, and the entire ecclesial community for the harm they have suffered in our very midst, which could lead them to doubt their faith because of the sin of someone who is called to care for them and encourage them on the path of faithfully following Jesus Christ.”

In a Nov. 28 statement they also expressed their “vigorous and outright condemnation of this lascivious act and of all sexual abuse, especially if such an act is committed by a priest.”

They said the Augustinian Recollects have already begun “the process provided by the Code of Canon Law … so that justice is restored, the scandal repaired, and the guilty cleric reformed.”

This is done “in compliance with and respecting” Venezuelan law, they said.

The statement added that Fr. Marino is prohibited from “the exercise of the priestly ministry in the Archdiocese of Maracaibo.”

The archdiocese reiterated its commitment that these cases would not happen again. After noting that the majority of priests “give their lives out of love,” the prelates encouraged prayer that “the Holy Spirit grant us a Church that ‘would be a living witness of truth and freedom, of peace and justice so all men would be encouraged with new hope.’”

 

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Vatican approves second miracle for Blessed John Henry Newman

November 28, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Washington D.C., Nov 28, 2018 / 12:47 pm (CNA).- A second miracle attributed to Blessed John Henry Newman has reportedly been approved by the Vatican, fueling expectation that his canonization could occur as early as next year.

Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom wrote in email newsletter to his diocese last week that he had received a copy of the relatio, or official report, about the second miracle needed for Newman’s canonization.

“It looks now as if Newman might be canonised, all being well, later next year,” wrote Egan in the newsletter.

According Fr. Ignatius Harrison, the postulator of Newman’s cause for canonization, there are now two more steps to be taken before Newman can be canonized. First, a commission of bishops has to approve of the canonization, and then Pope Francis must declare him a saint.

Harrison told the U.K.’s Catholic Herald that he too hopes that this will occur in 2019, but added that “there’s no way of knowing” if, or when, this will happen. The Catholic Herald reported that the canonization could occur after Easter 2019.

Newman’s second miracle concerned the healing of an American pregnant woman. The woman prayed for the intercession of Cardinal Newman at the time of a life-threatening diagnosis, and her doctors have been unable to explain how or why she was able to suddenly recover.

This miracle was investigated by the Archdiocese of Chicago, and apparently has new been confirmed.

Sr. Kathleen Dietz, FSO, is a Newman scholar, and vice-chancellor of the Diocese of Erie.

“Cardinal Newman was a man of integrity,” she told CNA. “A word you don’t hear too often, but it simply means that he followed what God wanted him to do, no matter the cost. And it cost him a lot.”

Newman was an Anglican priest and theologian who converted to Catholicism in 1845 at the age of 44. His conversion was very controversial, Dietz explained, and resulted in him losing many of his friends. Even his own sister never spoke to him again.

He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1847, and was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879, although he was not a bishop.

Newman was particularly dedicated to education and was a prolific writer. He also founded two schools for boys. Dietz told CNA she suspects that if he were canonized, he could be named the patron of scholars and students.

“He was very much a scholarly person,” she explained, but this did not mean he led an isolated life.  “He was extremely practical, and translated a lot of his scholarship into life,” she said.

Newman believed that evangelization of the faith could be done through quality education, Dietz said. Today, Catholic student organizations at non-Catholic universities are often called “Newman Societies” or “Newman Centers” in his honor.

He was beatified in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. The first miracle attributed to Newman’s intercession involved the complete and inexplicable healing of a deacon from a disabling spinal condition.

 

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Why do Central Americans join ‘migrant caravans?’

November 28, 2018 CNA Daily News 4

Mexico City, Mexico, Nov 28, 2018 / 12:41 pm (CNA).- Controversial “caravans” of Central American migrants have made headlines in recent weeks, and a quagmire at the U.S. southern border remains unresolved.

As policymakers and migrants consider their next steps, some have asked why migrants leave Central America to make a dangerous journey with an uncertain outcome.

Rick Jones, senior adviser on Migration and Public Policy for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Latin America, pointed to “three main reasons: violence, climate change and the lack of opportunities” in their countries of origin.

The first “migrant caravan” of 2018 left Oct. 13 from San Pedro Sula in Honduras. By the time they reached Mexico City in early November, they numbered more than 5,600 people. Other caravans followed in their steps.

“El Salvador and Honduras are among the five most violent countries in the world. In San Pedro Sula, for example, the homicide rate is 100 per 100,000 inhabitants,” Jones said.

For comparison, Jones said that in Los Angeles, “the homicide rate is 6 per 100,000 inhabitants.

“The difference in the levels of violence is overwhelming.”

Regarding climate change, Jones noted that “most rural people  in Central America plant corn and beans which require a certain level of rainfall. If there’s too much water, they lose [their crop],  if there’s no rain they lose [their crop]. And in Honduras, in the last five years they have had four years of drought, and this year 2018 they had drought followed by flooding. The people lost everything.”

“Finally, the people don’t have many options for work. Most people in El Salvador, for example, work  ‘off the books’ and make two or three dollars a day. That’s not enough to meet basic needs.”

Jones said that the migrants “suffer along the way” to the United States. “They walk between eight and nine hours a day and their feet blister, their shoes have holes in them. At this point, many are sick, with respiratory infections and even pneumonia due to the low temperatures in northern Mexico.”

“We’re working with some sisters who are caring for them, but that’s not enough,” he said.

Jones said that CRS works in Central America with rural people, business owners, and young people looking for employment. Programs look to improve circumstances before people feel the need to migrate toward an uncertain future.

“We have a program called ‘Young Builders’ where we help young people get jobs. And we’ve placed about 15,000 young people in jobs throughout the last ten years. But it’s a drop in the ocean.  
There’s more than a million youths who aren’t studying or working.”

They also help rural people “have real alternatives to planting corn and beans.”

“In El Salvador we’re supporting the reintroduction of the production of cocoa and that’s generating income, and helps to better manage the water and the issue of the land,” he said.

With these kind of projects, he said, people can hope to earn income and an improve the quality of their lives within their native countries.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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